James Swan

The author's chatty loquaciousness started out amusing but got rather grating & hugely time & space wasting. Some good pointers, mostly obvious, but too much aimed at people who entertain all the time; almost everything was from the guest's perspective. The proofreading must have been done by computer spellcheck: boarder for border, buy for bye, suburban track-home for tract home, causalities for casualties of war (!), wash'in and dry'in for washin' and dryin', etc., and hit/miss use of commas. For a final insult he continually refers to more info available on the website; it isn't.

In the last few chapters he seemed to reduce the silly comments & speak to the actual denizens of the home & I enjoyed them more, which raised my rating.… (meer)

101 Things I Hate About Your House by James Swan is supposed to be a humorous guidebook through "the mistakes we all make" as we try to decorate our homes. Except it's none of the above. So here is a brief list of things I hate about this book.

It's written in an over the top style that obiviously meant to appeal to upper middle class straight folk who expect their interior designers to a) be gay men and b) talk a certain way.
Ever listen to actual home remodeling / decorating talk? It's a dull mixture of regulations, material choices, colors, and prices. If no prices are listed (as in this book), you can't afford (and probably don't want to!) the services offered.
Homes come in all shapes and sizes but you'd never guess that from this book.
Homes are for the people who live in them. I'm not going to feel guilty over not doing things "right" just on this dude's say so (or anyone else's).

I could go on but the basic shtick of this awful book is that the reader is too stupid and too un-fabulous to host anyone until doing everything in this book just-so. If you don't or can't, you're a terrible, barbarian of a host or hostess.… (meer)